Hi! I’m new!

Hello! I’ve been lurking here for a while and thought I'd say hi! I'm Rachel, I live in Malvern, Worcestershire UK.

I'm here because I really want to learn toillustrate children's books, I've got ideas for stories in my head but getting those out of my head into some kind of picture book form is kinda challenging, and it seems like I need to learn a whole new set of skills in storytelling and sequencing images.

So a little bit about me: I'm a recovering fine art graduate, somehow accidentally making a living bouncing around selling paintings & prints at art markets and fairs, and doing commissions for paintings, murals on walls and giant animal sculptures. Which is great but not exactly what I want to be doing!

Every time I do an art market or fair someone says i should be doing children's books, and I do get random unpublished authors asking me to illustrate their stories but I don’t feel confident enough to attempt such a big project without learning a ton of stuff about it first. I also don't know any illustrators offline, so it's difficult to get feedback other than 'that's nice' which isn't too helpful! I'm hoping to get over my shyness of posting anything other than pictures online and join in crits and learn from u all!

Anyways thanks for listening to me ramble, here are some images of the kind of thing I've been doing...